Sunday, November 28, 2010

Hello Folks, this is Tim. Patti and I are extremely proud to introduce our newest Artist - yes - an Artist. Allow me to explain:

Soon after we opened almost three years ago, our customers began asking us if we had any Greeting Cards. We didn't, but we both agreed that being able to offer hand made greeting cards would be a great addition and complement to our craft items. Patti began searching for crafters who made Greeting Cards. This was a long search and until recently we weren't able to find the right crafter. Several months ago, we had a visitor at the Brickhouse. It turns out that this visitor is someone that Patti and I knew from our High School days. It also turns out that this visitor is a very accomplished artist. A few days later Patti and I were tossing around ideas for new ventures we wanted to try and we kept thinking about those Greeting Cards. We were familiar with some of this artists work and thought it would be a good fit for the Greeting Cards we had in mind. So we approached her about the idea - it turned out that she had been approached before about creating cards with some of her work. Her and her husband have a successful business located in Herndon, Pennsylvania and at the time they were hesitant to take on a Greeting Card venture for a number of reasons. We understood and thought at that point we were going to restart our search. But then, several weeks ago, the artist contacted us and said that she and her husband had worked out some of the details that would allow them to move forward with creating Greeting Cards. We were sent two designs to get started for the Holiday season.

For any of our customers that live - or have lived in our part of Central Pennsylvania, see if you can guess where the subject of these drawings are:

The first one is of a farm located in Klingerstown and the second one is a stone bridge located in Erdman. Now, if you guessed either of these, do you recognize the artist?

This is the work of Deanna Wiseman, who along with her husband Jeff, own Wiseman Graphics. These designs are from a series of Limited Edition Prints that you can see by clicking here WISEMAN . They have been adapted for use and are now available for purchase at the Brickhouse in the form of Greeting Cards. The cards measure 5 1/2 by 4 1/4 inches, include Deanna's signature on the back with a brief description of the design subject. The cards are blank on the inside so that you can write your own message to go along with a unique hand made gift or simply to send someone a special greeting.

We may be featuring more of Deanna's story in an upcoming post, but for now you can learn more about Deanna, Jeff and their business by visiting their website. They are two special people who have great talents and happen to be located in our area. They, along with their Greeting Cards, are a wonderful addition to all the other Brickhouse craft items and Patti and I are excited to be working with both Deanna and Jeff on this new venture. For any of you who have the opportunity, we invite you to visit the Brickhouse to have a look at our new Greeting Cards!

Monday, November 22, 2010

We are getting ready for Christmas here at The Brickhouse. We are decorating the Porch of the Shop and one of the porches of our home.

This week we are starting our Holiday hours here at the Shop. We will now be open 7 days a week until Christmas. This week we will be closed on Thanksgiving. Our hours for the Christmas season are: Mon~Thurs 10~6, Friday 10~8, Saturday 10~5(or later ) and Sunday 12~5...We hope you stop by and visit with us.

Also, we are collecting toys for the Christmas program at the Upper Dauphin Human Services Center, on Clearfield Street in Elizabethville. Please stop by the Brickhouse and help us fill a big box with toys.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Brickhouse has more Pa Soy candles in stock! And we just got some great smelling ones, including Elf Sweat and Reindeer Poo!

On Monday, Tim and I drove to Lebanon to pick up another order of candles from PA SOY.We always enjoy spending some time talking with Carolyn and Richard. As we were driving up to their place we decided that we would just pick up the candles, talk just a few minutes and then be on our way. WELL..the few minutes turned into an hour....again! We just love those 2 people and we can never just spend a few minutes with them! Carolyn and I discussed tart making and after her lesson on tart making, I am spending today making my tarts NEW AND IMPROVED! I wasn't happy with my tarts and after talking with Carolyn I realized what I was doing wrong...SO today I will be making tarts that hopefully will knock the socks off our customers! Thank you, Carolyn!

After we left Pa Soy, we headed south on 72. While sitting at a red light in East Petersburg, I looked to the right and there was a restaurant that we have heard about, just didn't realize where it was...well lo and behold right there it was.

It was a bit early for lunch so we continued on our way to Lancaster. We were heading to some wholesale places to pick up a few things for the Shop. Let me tell you if the amount of shoppers at the wholesale places is any indication that this is going to be a great year for retailers, we will have a lot of happy Shop owners! The places we went to were packed with Shop owners buying LOTS of goodes for their Shops.

It was a beautiful old restaurant and we loved it and we will be back...next time for dinner! Here is Tim checking out the extensive menu and wine list.

We enjoyed a nice bottle of wine with our meal. I had the French Onion soup, one of the best I ever had! Tim had the creamy leek and potato soup. He did let me have a taste of it and it was good! Then we both had a salad. And then dessert! Here are a few pictures of our lunch. I loved the pewter dishes. Check out the little pewter holding the butter. I just loved how they have the tables decorated.

Our desserts! Tim had his favorite dessert, Banana's Foster. I had one of my favorites, Creme Brulee with raspberry sauce...so good!

The walls in the dining room were old bricks. It was so cozy and nice!

Tim checking out the artwork.

We had a great day...we loved seeing our friends, Carolyn and Richard at PA Soy, we had fun shopping and we had a nice lunch. But the best part was spending time with Tim..it was a great day!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

I have been busy making new Tarts/Melts for our customers here at the Brickhouse Craft Shop. It is so much fun experimenting with new scent combinations When Tim and I talked about me making the tarts/melts for our Shop, I told him I would just stick with about 12 fragrances for our tarts and then offer a Scent of the month. If the scent of the month was a big hit we would then add it to our line of tarts. Well, we haven't started the Scent of the Month yet but I can tell you that I am not able to just keep only 12 fragrances here in the Shop! It is so hard not to have so many different fragrances available for our customers..sorry Tim! It is an addicting craft...I want to try so many scents! Tim and I hope you can stop by The Brickhouse and check out our new tarts.